Local Leads: 12/8/10

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The following stories have been hand-selected by the Assignment Desk at News4:

GET PAID TO BIKE TO WORK Gazette: "Hyattsville officials want city employees to lower their carbon footprints when they commute, and are willing to pay them to do it. The City Council approved a pilot program Monday that would offer monetary incentives to city employees who bike, walk or use mass transit to commute to work. The program would run from Jan. 1 through June 30, 2011."

GET PAID TO QUIT wtop.com: "Would you leave your job voluntarily for cold hard cash? A local agency hopes so. In order to trim the budget and reduce the size of state government, Maryland is offering eligible state employees a buyout. The deal for workers: take a lump sum payment of $15,000 plus $200 for each year on the job to walk away from their position. Employees would not be able to return to any state agency for at least 18 months."

NO MORE METRO PAY PHONES?Washington Examiner: "Metro, one of the last bastions of the phone booth, is considering eliminating public pay phones from its train stations. The transit agency has held onto the icons even as phone booths have disappeared from street corners and malls, ending the era of students cramming inside, costume changes a la Clark Kent or anonymous souls dropping a dime. Now Metro's 10-year contract with Verizon is slated to expire in March, Metro spokeswoman Cathy Asato said, and no one has responded to a request to fill the void. "So we'll be considering all options," she said. The agency has asked public groups for input in what getting rid of pay phones would mean for riders."